[artist id="1225081"]T.I.[/artist] has taken a few detours from his road to redemption, but he's not the only one who has stumbled in the spotlight. The imprisoned MC remembered this fact when deciding who would be right for his record "Get Back Up" — a sentiment that ultimately led him to controversial crooner Chris Brown.

Tip broke down the origin of the collabo during an exclusive "RapFix Live" interview from prison Thursday (December 9).

"We were thinking, 'Who else could we get to be on this record ... of such importance? Who else has a significant story to tell of triumph from tragedy?' " he recalled. "I was like, 'Chris. Let's see if Chris can do it.' I reached out to Chris, and he did it."

The ATL MC said the reaction to the track was strong from the beginning, with many listeners feeling an instant connection to the record.

"Immediately, as soon as we heard it, everybody who heard it first listen is like, 'That's something special,' " he described. "It's not nothing that you hear every day on radio; it's not your average, typical T.I. record. It's a message, and it's two guys who have been through something, who have had the world turn their backs on them."

T.I. maintained the track gave the embattled stars a chance to say exactly what they wanted, exactly how they wanted to say it. The fans only job is to listen up.

"You get to listen without interruption. You can't interrupt me now,"

he explained. "There's no way for you to interject. There's no way for you to misinterpret what I'm saying. You got to sit, and you got to listen.

"Just like when you write your articles, just like when you sit at your computer, you blog, I got to sit, and I got to read. So now, it's your turn. This is what we got to say."